Kaczynski's Shyness Recalled by UC Berkeley Colleagues

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle East Bay Bureau

Published 4:00 am, Friday, April 5, 1996

The former Berkeley assistant math professor authorities believe is the notorious Unabomber was a man of high intellect who seemed "almost pathologically shy" and bereft of a social life, his ex-colleagues recalled yesterday.

Theodore John Kaczynski seemed destined for the tenure track when he joined the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley at age 25. But he inexplicably resigned in 1969 after a two- year stint as an assistant professor, according to his former bosses.

"It struck me as unusual -- a person of this obvious capability and brilliance" suddenly leaving, professor Calvin Moore told a packed news conference at the campus student union. "I think he could have advanced along the lines to become part of the senior faculty."

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Moore, then department vice chairman, and former math chairman John Addison said that while their memories of Kaczynski had faded, they did remember that he was not especially fond of company.

After Kaczynski spoke at a math seminar, fellow professors invited him for a traditional beer and pizza get-together.

"He said, 'No, thank you,' and walked off," Moore said.

Documents released by the university yesterday show that Kaczynski threw himself into the world of academia.

He published six papers between 1965 and 1969 -- a prolific pace -- and taught four courses at Berkeley: number systems and set theory to underclassmen, and topology and function spaces to graduate students.

But for some reason, he grew tired of mathematics and abruptly resigned from the university on June 30, 1969, a move that was "quite out of the blue," Addison wrote to Kaczynski's thesis supervisor at the University of Michigan.

"He said he was going to give up mathematics and wasn't sure what he was going to do," Addison's letter read. "He was very calm and relaxed about it on the outside. We tried to persuade him to reconsider, but our presentation had no apparent effect."

The letter ended: "Kaczynski seemed almost pathologically shy, and as far as I know he made no close friends in the department. Efforts to bring him more into the swing of things had failed."

Addison, now professor emeritus, said yesterday that Kaczynski "may have wanted to do something that had more immediate social value" than mathematics.

A copy of Kaczynski's biography revealed little about his outside interests. Printing in neat, almost childlike writing, he detailed only his work and educational background. University officials blacked out his marital status on the form.

When asked for his reaction to the fact that Kaczynski used to be a math professor, Addison responded, "I don't think a mathematician is any more capable than a musician or an English professor" of being a serial bomber.

The professors said they knew of no particular event that could have prompted Kaczynski's resignation. Similarly, his name never appeared in campus police logs during the turbulent 1960s, said university police Captain Bill Foley.